The crew of the submarine “San Juan” died: how the sailors escaped the sinking submarine

The operation to rescue the crew of the submarine “San Juan”, which is not contacted with the November 15, discontinued. The authorities of Argentina declared the crew dead. Search the submarine will continue.

“MK” has collected stories about the most major catastrophes of submarines, which occurred after the Second world war.

photo: AP

Among all sunken in peacetime, submarines are at least 10 nuclear power, with missiles or torpedoes with nuclear warheads.

The first victim of peace-time became the French submarine Orphee. In 1946, at anchor in the port of Morocco in one of the compartments, an explosion occurred in the torpedo. The causes are still not established. Then two persons were lost, and the boat went under decommissioning.

There are many cases of flooding or serious damage to submarines happen to exercise. In the same 1946 Spain conducted the exercises, which involved three destroyers and three submarines. One of the submarines “popped” to the surface right in front of the destroyer “Lepanto”. Time maneuver was not one. From the received damages the boat went down in minutes, the crew could not be saved by anyone.

A similar fate befell the Turkish submarine of the Balao Domlupinar project, and the British submarine HMS Truculent, and our M-200 “Revenge” project Malyutka XV series. They are all experienced military or civilian courts. And in 1958, our submarine C-342 are not separated from the tanker “Alazan” when you exit the Catherine harbour. From the damaged compartment could not escape anyone, however, the boat was able to reach base. Of the first 5 compartments, the crew were rescued, And 7-m were still 7 people who at any moment could die. Water was supplied in 5 and 7 compartments, and despite the fact that the boat was already at the pier, she could at any time go to the bottom. It was decided to “throw” the boat ashore, which was done at high tide. During low tide, the hatch opened and 7 people who has teetered between life and death by suffocation, was rescued.

Read the material: “Finding the submarine “San Juan” stopped: what happened with the Argentine submarine”

There were more “curious” cases. So in 1954 from the dry dock was washed away by the British submarine HMS Talent. The cause was called human error. Then the victims of such “mistakes” were 4 of British workers.

Record catastrophe the number of victims was the American nuclear submarine Tresher sunk in 1963. That ill-starred day the boat worked through the dive to the maximum depth. The purpose of this was to test the hull strength of the submarine at maximum depth (360 meters). Accompanied by the submarine rescue ship Skylark, which ultimately, still the boat is not saved. One of the joints of the pipeline sea water was leaking and the engine room began to fill with water. Outboard water led to a short circuit, the reactor is shut down and the boat lost speed and started to dive and was actually crushed by hydrostatic pressure. Now the “Thresher” is at a depth of 2560 metres. According to the Commission, the boat collapsed at a depth of slightly more than 700 meters less than a second. The hull was divided into six parts, which are in a radius of 300 metres from each other. This tragedy claimed the lives of 112 crew members and 17 civilian specialists.

In 1968 not contacted the Israeli diesel-electric submarine INS Dakar. Israel after the six day war took the decision to strengthen its Navy and decided to buy from Britain three submarines, which was done. The teams headed to Portsmouth to explore the technique, and Dakar, and another submarine was on repair in the same Portsmouth. 9 January 1968, Dakar left Portsmouth, 24, reached Crete. The last session was held on 25 January, a night and then the boat was gone. The search continued for 2 months, but were unsuccessful. Found a boat but after almost 30 years. The Israeli Navy was attracted to the search for an American firm, with specialized equipment for deep-see work. And here 29 may at a depth of 3000 meters was discovered Dakar. Later managed to pick up a fragment of felling the dead boat. The tragedy claimed the lives of 69 crew members. The causes are still not established.

In the same year, our first sank the K-129, and then the American Scorpion. Our submarine sank at a depth of 5 kilometers with the entire crew of 97 people. Just two months on the bottom left of the Scorpion with its 99 crew members. In the first case, the cause of death is still not established, and the information about the sub for a long time were kept secret. In the second case, the probable cause of the sinking of the submarine was the explosion aboard the torpedo. The American boat was searched for 5 months until analyzed recordings of hydroacoustic stations. May 22 one of these stations recorded the signal, which is characteristic for the destruction of the hull of the boat. After that, the search area was limited to a small square and at a depth of 3100 meters the boat was found.

In 1970 vast the world’s oceans do not share our American submarine. They encountered at a depth of 45 meters. There were no casualties, but both boats sustained damage and was towed to base.

In 1989 in the Norwegian sea sank our nuclear attack submarine K-278 “Komsomolets”. Unique submarine with a durable titanium case was able to dive to 1000 meters. The reason was a fire in two adjacent compartments. The submarine was able to surface and the crew for several hours fought to the buoyancy of the submarine. During this time from hypothermia killed 16 people. The disaster claimed the lives of 42 people including the commander of the ship, 27 crew members were rescued.

Nuclear submarine K-141 “Kursk” was another victim of the Barents sea. In August 2000, she sank at a depth of 108 meters in 137 kilometers from Severomorsk. 118 crew members were killed.

In 2003, China lost its submarine No. 361 and 70 crew members. According to experts, diesel is not stopped when submerged and, figuratively speaking, “burned” all the air in the boat. This is the largest officially recognized the loss of the Chinese submarine fleet.

It should say that it is not always incident on the sub leads to permanent flooding of the boat and the death of the crew. There are many examples where despite the extraordinary situation on Board the crew managed to bring the boat to the nearest port. Like for example, this happened with an experimental nuclear submarine K-27. 24 may 1968 the boat was out of control nuclear reactor with a liquid coolant. From acute radiation sickness then killed 9 submariners, the crew, also received doses of radiation, could still bring the submarine to the base in Gremikha.